Church #45

It's Party Time!

Today was Alexis' birthday party.  We had it at the kids area of the Riverway Pool (a free, public pool in Townsville).  So, first on the agenda was swimming of course!

Next, it was cupcake time.  Alexis loves bananas, so I made her banana cupcakes with a pineapple glaze and some fresh fruit on top.  They turned out great.  Eating one was like having a tropical party in your mouth!  Her cupcake was extra big and had some blueberries on top (another of her favourites), and of course her #1 candle.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Alexis:

When it came to eating her cupcake, Alexis was a little tentative at first; very typical behaviour when you give her something she's never eaten before.  But she got the hang of it.  She's such a dainty eater that she didn't really end up making that big of a mess.

Alexis eating her cupcake:

The last activity was opening presents.  Alexis loved taking all of the paper off.  She got a lot of different bath toys, which was perfect, because she loves to take baths.

It was fun to have a "summer" birthday.  I thought we better take advantage of living in the southern hemisphere.  As soon as we move back to the U.S. Alexis will have a fall birthday that is super close to Halloween.  Alexis loves swimming so much, so we're glad that we could celebrate with a pool party.

Tooth #8

Upper right lateral incisor.

Waiting

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am having computer problems again. So, all of posts about Alexis turning one will have to wait. John is working super hard on his thesis (even at night), so I can't really borrow his computer at the moment.  Just hold tight and hopefully sometime next week I'll have a fully functioning computer.

Numbers

We had Alexis' one year check-up today.  She is a healthy, growing girl.  Here are her all-important numbers:

Weight: 8.66 kg or 19 lbs (18%)

Height: 73 cm or 28.7 in (37%)

Head circumference: 44 cm or 17.3 in (25%)

First Birthday

Today was Alexis' first birthday.  We can't believe our baby girl is one year old!  This past year somehow managed to feel like the longest and shortest year ever.  We have loved watching Alexis grow and develop into a little person.  It seems like everyday she does something new.  We love her so much; we're so happy that we get to be her mommy and daddy.

Here are some things about Alexis at one year old:

• Alexis loves water.  She loves to drink water, she loves to take baths and she loves to go swimming.  I've been taking her to 'Mommy and Me' swim classes since she was six months old and she is a natural.
•  I hesitate to say it, and hopefully she'll outgrow it fast, but Alexis tends to be a picky eater.  She knows what she likes and she knows what she doesn't like.  And there is no tricking her.  It's partially my fault, because she also knows that if she fusses enough, she'll get something she likes.  She has this 'determined' look that is so cute.
• Alexis is a very happy baby girl.  She is always smiling and laughing.  Her giggle is so funny sounding.  She is also very dramatic.  On the rare occasions when she is unhappy, it is a quick change.  There is nothing in-between happy and sad for her.
• Alexis is very curious.  She is constantly pointing at things and asking "dis?" ("this?").
• She never stops moving!  Alexis is very active and never really sits still (unless she's interested in the story you're reading).  She loves to climb up and down the stairs and cruise along the furniture.  If there's music on then she shakes her bum around in a cute little dance.
• Alexis loves to be outside.  If she's not outside, then she loves to stand at the window and point at everything she can see.  She blows raspberries on the window too.
• Besides swimming, Alexis' all-time favourite thing to do is read.  She is equally happy reading a book to herself (turning the pages and pointing at the pictures) or having you read to her.  She likes to pick out the book and then sit in your lap while you read to her.  She almost always wants to read the same book multiple times before she chooses a different story.
• Alexis is very affectionate.  She loves to cuddle and give kisses, usually slobbery, open mouth ones.  We're trying to teach her how to blow kisses.  So far she has the "mmmmaaa" sound down, but not the hand part.
• Alexis can now sleep through the night without me having to feed her, and in her own room too!  She has been doing this for about a month now.  We are loving the extra sleep and having our own room back.

The first thing we did to celebrate Alexis' birthday was to open up presents.  We skyped Nana so that she could watch Alexis open her present.  Nana gave her a baby doll.  It was love at first sight.  Alexis loves her doll and loves to cuddle it.  And no matter how many times I say "baby," Alexis says "Dada" (which is ok, because she usually calls John "Da").  So now the baby's name is Dada.  It's so cute.

Alexis got to open all of her other presents too.  She loved ripping the paper and seemed to know exactly what to do.  She got so many fun gifts.

Later that day we headed to the Strand for a birthday lunch.  Doesn't Alexis look adorable in her birthday dress?

We met up with our friends Peter and Dorothy who were visiting from Perth.  We ate at Jamaica Joe's, a restaurant on the water that we have always wanted to try.  We were so happy to have Peter and Dorothy with us to celebrate.

It was a pretty low-key birthday, but we have more celebrating planned for this weekend.  I know that I said it before, but we can't believe that Alexis is one!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Where is the Green Sheep?

I've mentioned before that Alexis' favourite book is Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox.  She loves it so much, that she's practically loved our copy to death.  It is completely falling apart:

So what is a good mommy to do?  Get her a new one, of course:

Hopefully this copy will last until she no longer wants to eat the pages and she can progress from the board book to one with normal pages.  But by then of course, she may not love this particular book so much.  Happy reading!

Church #44

Girls' Weekend

Alexis and I recently got back from spending a few days in Brisbane with our friends the Hanns and the Atkinsons.  Rebecca, Steph and I became friends when we were all living in Townsville, but sadly they have both moved to Brisbane.  And since they've moved, Rebecca has had her first baby (Gabby), Steph had her second (Noah), and I had Alexis.  I was desperate to see them both and the babies.  I was lucky to find some cheap plane tickets, so Alexis and I headed off.  It was so fun to watch the babies interact with each other and for me to be able to relax and visit with old friends. 

Rebecca and I taking the babies downtown.

We saw the Valentino exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art.  It was amazing to see so many vintage Valentino dresses.  Beautiful!

Alexis and Gabriella.

 

It was so cute to see these two girls together.  They didn't quite know what to make of each other.  It was Alexis' first attempt at sharing toys and I must admit that she didn't do so well.  She kept grabbing everything Gabby tried to play with.

Alexis with Eliana and Noah.

Alexis absolutely loved Eliana.  And Ellie was very nice about sharing her toys and playing with Alexis.  Noah is just so adorable; he has the most kissable little baby cheeks I've ever seen!

We took the kids to a local park by Seth and Steph's house.  The girls had fun swinging and feeding the ducks, eels (!), and goldfish.

 

Our trip went by so fast.  Next time I will definitely plan a longer visit.  We miss our friends already.

Church #43

Try number one:

Try number two:

Try number three:

Woes of diaper rash

Alexis has her first really bad diaper rash (or 'nappy rash' as they call it in Australia). It was really, really bad last week. It got a lot better over the weekend and now it's getting bad again. I think it is from all of the beans she eats. She absolutely loves beans, so I usually give her some for lunch. But now I don't know. If she keeps getting a sore bottom, then I might have to help her find a new favourite food.  When it was at its worst last week, we let her wander around a bit without a diaper on.  Her little bum is just so cute, I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Church #42

Alexis was so serious this morning while we were taking her pictures. John was standing behind me the whole time dancing, singing and making funny faces; we could not get her to crack a smile!

Looking at the pictures now, John and I can't believe how big Alexis looks, and how grown up. Alexis is now taller than the back of the chair!  This is the first picture of Alexis standing up in the chair (taken 11 April 2010).  What a difference six month makes!

P.S. Happy Birthday Pops!

P.P.S. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa

for the new dress . . . it finally fits!

More visitors!

We love having visitors and this past week we were lucky to have Trevor and Jeremy visiting from Seattle.  For those of you who don't know, Trevor is one of my best childhood friends (we met in 6th grade at the International School).  It was so nice to be able to spend some time together and to get to know Jeremy.  

It was a busy few days as we tried to cram in as much sightseeing as possible.  Our first stop was Magnetic Island.  This is Alexis and me on the ferry over to the island (that's Townsville and Castle Hill in the background).

Our next stop was Billabong Sanctuary.  Trevor and Jeremy loved all of the native animals.  Here's Jeremy feeding one of the resident kangaroos.

Day number three was a trip to Charters Towers.  T & J wanted an "outback" experience and Charters Towers is only an hour drive from Townsville, so off we went.  It was fun to learn about the town's gold mining history and meet some colourful locals.  Unfortunately, Alexis never really warmed up to T & J (I think it was just because they are boys, though she did let Trevor read her a story a few times), but I really wanted a picture of them with her, so here it is (this is the lookout on top of Towers Hill in Charters Towers):

That night we had dinner out at one of our favourite restaurants, Osmans.  I called ahead to book us one of their pillow lounges (it's a Turkish restaurant).  It was nice to be able to let Alexis crawl around a bit on the pillows and actually be able to have some adult conversation.

Our last day together, we drove up to Castle Hill to enjoy the views . . .

 . . . and then spent the morning at Reef HQ, the local aquarium.

Thanks Trevor and Jeremy for making the long trip to Australia.  We were so happy to have you here for the week.

(Looking back over the post, I realised that there are no pictures of John.  Unfortunately John didn't get to do any of the day trips with us, as he's working very hard on this thesis.  He did come to dinner at Osmans, but he was the one taking the picture.  Thanks for working so hard Daddy, we love you!)

Church #41

Before church:

After church:

A big thank you to Trevor and Jeremy for Alexis' adorable dress and John's cool tie!  (And for my purse too, which is not pictured.)